As Republican candidates across the country seize on the proposed construction of a mosque near ground zero in New York City as a campaign issue, some influential GOP figures are growing concerned that it could backfire.
Although public opinion is running overwhelmingly against construction of the Islamic center, Republican strategists said there are dangers in pushing the issue too forcefully.
Pollster David Winston, who advises GOP congressional leaders, worries that the mosque controversy could overshadow the issues voters care about most.
“While this is certainly an issue that has generated a lot of emotion, when it comes to voting, the election is going to be about the economy and jobs,” he said.
Others fear that the party risks appearing intolerant of religious differences.
“One of the biggest dangers in politics is to overplay an issue,” said former Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie, who warned that voters could conclude that Republicans who oppose the New York mosque are taking a stand against Islam in general.
“It’s very important that as Republicans talk about this issue, we be thoughtful and careful about making those distinctions,” Gillespie said.
Yet some of the party’s most visible figures have taken the opposite approach in reaction to President Barack Obama’s declaration that Muslim Americans have a right to build the center on religious-freedom grounds.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told the Fox News channel that building a mosque so close to where terrorists killed thousands of Americans would be like putting a Nazi sign next to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. On the same network, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin warned: “This is an insensitive move on the part of those Muslims who want to build that mosque in this location. It feels like a stab in the heart to, collectively, Americans who still have that lingering pain from 9/11.”
In congressional districts nationwide, hundreds of miles away from ground zero, Republican candidates have demanded that their Democratic opponents declare their positions on the mosque. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. — under pressure from his GOP opponent, Sharron Angle — issued a statement Monday saying he opposes the project.
Not all Republicans see an advantage in exploiting the issue.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a rising star in the party, declined to give his opinion. He said Obama and some members of his own party are “playing politics with this issue, and I simply am not going to do it.”
“We have to bring people together,” Christie added. “And what offends me the most about all this is that it’s being used as a political football by both parties.”
Strategists in both parties say that they think the issue will be all but forgotten by November.
“The support for criticizing a mosque is half a mile wide and an inch deep,” conservative activist Grover Norquist warned. “And at the end of the process, the only people who will remember it are the people who feel threatened by this — not just Muslims, but Sikhs, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and Mormons.”
Components of the Islamic center
Facilities planned for the Islamic center, called Park51:
• Recreation spaces and fitness facilities (swimming pool, gym, basketball court)
• 500-seat auditorium
• Restaurant and culinary school
• Cultural amenities, including exhibitions
• Education programs
• Library, reading room and art studios
• Child-care services
• Mosque, intended to be run separately from Park51 but open to and accessible to all members, visitors and the New York community
• Sept. 11 memorial and quiet-contemplation space, open to all
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